Today, April 11th, kicks off the AARC Virtual Lobby Campaign. Every year the AARC and the state affiliates send representatives to Washington DC to advocate for the profession and ultimately the patients that we provide care for. This year the AARC Hill Day is on May 1st. Donna Sullivan and myself along with about 200+ people from around the country will be meeting with Senators and House Representatives from our respective states and districts asking them to support RT and Telehealth. We are asking Congress to support a pilot study that uses Respiratory Therapists as Telehealth Practitioners. To learn more about the proposed pilot study, you can go to the AARC Virtual Lobby site (http://www.aarc.org/advocacy/congressional-legislation/aarc-virtual-lobby-campaign/)

Before we meet with them on May 1st, we need to have YOU help us. We need you to reach out to your House Representative and Senators to let them know how important it is that they support Respiratory Therapy and Telehealth. You can do this by going to the AARC Phone to Action site (https://p2a.co/lowDE4J) There you can find the links. Click on the link that fits your category and from there, a couple of bits of information (Name, Address, email etc.) and you can email, Tweet, Facebook or even call your House Representative and Senator and urge them to support RT as telehealth practitioners.

This process takes just a few minutes of your time and yet will have an impact on how we as Respiratory Therapist take care of our patients. Feel free to share the Phone to Action link with friends, family, other RT’s, patients, and other MD’s. If you do not believe that your voice matters, last year when I went, every single Senator and Representative knew about us coming and that they had heard from patients, healthcare providers, caregivers and more importantly Respiratory Therapist how important it was to support Telehealth bills and the impact it will have to our patients and the roll and impact that Respiratory Therapist have on our patients. We were able to get all of their support. We need to make sure that they still have our back and the back of our patients in this proposed pilot program.